The invention relates generally to eyeglasses, such as for example sunglasses. More specifically, the invention relates to eyeglasses with rotatable temples where the temples can rotate to the front of the lens(es).
The lenses of eyeglasses typically need to be protected from abrasion, for example, to maintain an unobstructed view through the lenses for the user. Protection from abrasion can be particularly desirable for lenses that are coated, for example, with polarization-selective coatings. Such forms of protection include, for example, storage cases and anti-scratch lens coatings.
Such forms of protection, however, have limited effectiveness. For example, storage case can only protect eyeglasses from abrasion when the lenses are stored within the case. This cannot protect the lenses from abrasion when the eyeglasses are, for example, temporarily placed down on a surface. Similarly, anti-scratch lens coatings provide limited protection in such situations.
Eyeglass designs have been proposed in which the temples can be moved to the front of the eyeglasses frame. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,638,146 to Nannini discloses collapsible eyewear having temples that collapse in the same plane as the lenses. The Nannini eyewear uses two hinges for each temple where one hinge allows the temple to rotate 360°. The temples collapse to reduce the storage space needed when the eyewear is folded.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,361,515 to Vanderbeek discloses eyewear having temple pieces that are oppositely folding: one temple folds to the front of the eyeglasses and the other temple folds to the rear of the eyeglasses. The hinge of Vanderbeek allows the temples to pivot 270° so that the temple when folded is parallel to its location when unfolded. Correspondingly, the single temple folded to the front of the eyeglasses is parallel to the upper bar of the eyeglasses so that the lenses are only minimally shielded by the temple.
These known eyeglass designs suffer several shortcomings. They are typically designed to minimize the amount of space needed during storage, but provide little to no shielding of the front side of both lenses. Many of these known eyeglass designs require two hinges for each temple. In addition, they cannot position the temples adjacent to the center portion of the outer side (or front side) of the lens. The center portion of the lens is the portion that the user is most likely to look through and, because of the curvature of typical lenses, the portion of the lens most likely in need of protection from abrasion.
Thus, a need exists for eyeglasses with rotatable temples where the temples can rotate to the outer side (or front side) of the eyeglasses face.